To love God and to love our
neighbor is the fulfillment of all spiritual law.
To love God and to love our
neighbor is the fulfillment of all spiritual law.
Galatians 5:13-14 "For brethren, you have been called to liberty, only don't use liberty for an occassion to gratify the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in this one saying: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"
(Again, as was stated at the beginning of these doctrinal statements, please use these scriptures as a springboard to further study. Check out the book of Galatians, especially the context surrounding these verses. Paul is speaking of the old covenant mindset contrasted with the way of liberty through Christ.)
Romans 13:8-9 "Owe no one anything except love toward one another, for the one that loves another has fulfilled the law. For concerning these things: 'You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, You shall not covet;' and if there is any other commandment, it, too, is summed up in this saying, namely, 'You shall love you neighbor as yourself.'"
James 2:8-12 "If you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself,' you do well. but if you show partiality toward persons, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For He that said, 'Do not commit adultery,' said also, 'Do not kill.' If you kill, you have become a transgressor of the law. So, speak and do as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty."
(We are judged as to whether or not we love our neighbor as ourselves. This is the "royal law" spoken of here, and it is equated with "the law of liberty."
This is also the chapter containing the controversial statement, "...faith without works is dead." Some use this as a pivotal verse to justify a belief that mankind must somehow earn his own salvation. James is merely stating that real faith produces works of love. If it does not, then it is a lifeless faith, that is, it is no faith at all.
Good works are an excellent barometer of faith, for if we truly know and believe the depths of God's love for us, and his love for the rest of his people, then we cannot help but love God, and love the children that he loves. This will always result in works motivated by love.
Yes, faith without works is dead. But even moreso, so-called 'righteous' work without faith is dead. And, worse than either of these, works (by the professing Christian) that are done without the motivation of love are fraudulent, deceitful, blatant hyprocrisy, and completely in vain...read 1 Corinthians 13:1-3!)
1 John 3:16-24 "We know what love is because he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Whoever has worldly goods and sees his brother in need and stifles his compassion for him, how can the love of God be dwelling in him? My little children, let's not love just in words and speech, but in deeds and truth. This is how we will know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. When our heart condemns us, God is even greater than our heart, and knows everything. Beloved, if our heart doesn't condemn us, then we have confidence toward God. Whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us. And he that keeps his commandments dwells in him, and he in him, and his Spirit is the proof of his presence within us."
(John writes that Jesus' love for us motivates love toward our brother, for that same Spirit of love now dwells in us.)
1 Peter 1:22 "Seeing that you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, love one another fervently, with a pure heart."
(This is an interesting statement. Peter writes to the saints that they have purified their souls by obedience to the truth, resulting in unfeigned...real, unfaked...love for the brethren. For those that value truth, if you are indeed knowledgable of the truth and are obeying it, then unfeigned love for your brother should be the result! Does this square with the reality of things today? Or, have we constructed a view of the truth that is no more than thinly disguised legalism, a distorted view of truth that breeds distrust, suspicion, disdain, and sometimes outright animosity for any brother who would dare to disagree with us?)
John 13:34-35;15:12,17
John 13:34-35 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, you also love one another"
John 15:12,17 "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you....these things I command you, that you love one another."
(These are the words of Jesus Christ. In the preceding verses, we have quoted Paul, James, John, and Peter. Love was a subject of highest emphasis, both from the mouth of the Savior, and from the pens of the apostles. Why is this so? Simply because all...I repeat, all...Christian endeavors are to no avail...absolutely useless...without love. The word of God stresses this throughout.
God's love in us is visible proof of his presence in us. God so personifies love that it is said, "God IS love" (1 John 4:8). And the Christian lives his life to personify God.
The Spirit empowers Godly love, and Godly love in turn is a visible witness of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the people of God. Without visible and active love, Emmanuel, God With Us, Christ in us, cannot be seen. And that is the purpose of the church. Read (again) John 17:20-21. Please. His people must understand! )
Matthew 22:35-40 "Then one of them, an expert in the law, asked him a question, testing him, and saying, 'Master, which is the great commandment in the law?' Jesus said to him, '"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.'"
(The entire message of the word of God has been this one. These two laws are quoted from the Old Testament, from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. Most of the Scribes, Doctors of Biblical Law, and Pharisees didn't get it. Jesus came to reveal this principal as central to all obedience to the will of God.
We are not called to "jump through all the right hoops" so we can hopefully be rewarded with eternal life just for our dogged suffering and perseverence. That was not the motivation for Christ's suffering and death, for it says that "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). If we allow Christ to live in us, "toughing it out for a reward" will not be our motivation, either, for we will willingly lay down our lives daily in his service, because we are filled with his love, until the end.)
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